California man tells jury of getting cancer after using J&J baby powder

[June 27, 2023]  By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) - A California man suing Johnson & Johnson told jurors on Monday how his life was upended by a cancer diagnosis that he blames on using the company's baby powder since childhood, as the first trial over the product in nearly two years neared its end.

"I just turned into a scared little kid," Emory Hernandez, fighting back tears, said of his 2022 mesothelioma diagnosis while testifying in Alameda County Superior Court, according to an online broadcast of the trial by Courtroom View Network. He said he would have avoided J&J's talc if he had been warned it contained asbestos, as his lawsuit alleges.

J&J has denied that its baby powder contained asbestos or causes cancer.

Hernandez, 24, said he had recently changed his name to Emory, from Anthony, because he had hoped to use the name for his own future child.

"I used it kind of like in honor of the potential kid that I could have had," he said.

J&J has argued in the case that Hernandez's illness, which affects the tissue around his heart rather than the more common form affecting the lungs, is extremely rare and has not been linked to asbestos exposure.

Allison Brown, a lawyer for J&J, in a cross-examination, asked Hernandez about how much he knew about his own case.

Hernandez said he did not know much about the details of the lawsuit, and also that he did not personally buy baby powder or remember which specific products he used. He also said he did not remember his doctor ever telling him that baby powder caused his cancer.

Earlier in the day, jurors heard from Hernandez's mother, Anna Camacho, who said she used large amounts of J&J's baby powder on her son when he was a baby and through childhood. She cried as she described Hernandez's illness.

Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York October 15, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

"I do not wish this on any parent," she said.

Hernandez's trial, expected to conclude later this week, comes as J&J seeks to resolve thousands of similar talc lawsuits through a settlement.

J&J subsidiary LTL Management in April filed for bankruptcy in Trenton, New Jersey, proposing to pay $8.9 billion to settle more than 38,000 lawsuits, and prevent new cases from coming forward in the future. It is the company's second attempt to resolve talc claims in bankruptcy, after a federal appeals court rejected an earlier bid.

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in New Jersey is expected to hold a hearing on Tuesday on whether to dismiss the latest bankruptcy as being filed in bad faith, as some talc plaintiffs and the U.S. government have argued.

J&J has said the proposed bankruptcy settlement offers a fairer and faster resolution for cancer claimants than litigation in other courts.

Litigation has largely been halted during bankruptcy proceedings, but Kaplan allowed Hernandez's trial to go ahead because he is expected to live only a short time.

Even if Hernandez wins, he will not be able to collect on the judgment while the bankruptcy is ongoing, though the case could affect future settlement negotiations.

J&J said in bankruptcy court filings that the costs of its talc-related verdicts, settlements and legal fees have soared to about $4.5 billion.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)

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